Farewell to Şirin Cemgil

On Saturday, 25 April, comrades of Şirin Cemgil met for her funeral at the Karacaahmet graveyard in Istanbul and commemorated her life.

Şirin Cemgil had died on 17 April in Duisburg, Germany, where she had lived in exile since the military coup of 12 September 1980.

She had been the wife of Sinan Cemgil, co-founder of the Turkey People’s Liberation Army (THKO). He had been killed in 1971. Their son, Taylan Cemgil, spoke at the funeral.

He said that his mother had been faithful to her ideals until the end of her life, and that he was planning to complete a book of her memoirs which she had left unfinished.

“After she, in her own words, decided to become ‘a professional revolutionary’, she always kept an independent attitude, even when she took part in political movements.”

“She described herself as a child of peace. Whatever I have done in life, I owe to her.”

A life according to ideals

Comrades of the political struggle in Turkey in the 1960s as well as people who knew her in her years of exile in Germany spoke about her living according to her ideals.

They all emphasised that she needed to be remembered independently of Sinan Cemgil, as a female militant in the socialist movement of the time.

In her last years, she became angry at those who had given up on the idea of a revolution, which made her lonely.

From 1964, she was a member of the Turkey Workers’ Party (TİP) and the Confederation of Thought Clubs (FKF).

ÖDP MP Ufuk Uras said that people from different socialist groups who had come together for Şirin Cemgil’s funeral would show her memory the most respect if they worked together in real life, too.

Women were not liberated by 1968 movement

Ertuğrul Kürkçü, bianet coordinator and member of the Socialist Labour Movement (SEH), said, “For those who studied at the Architecture Faculty at the Middle East Technical University in the second half of the 1960s, Şirin was very important, she was the wife of our comrade, the leader of the socialist youth, Sinan. But when you looked closer, it was not easy to say whether Sinan was Şirin’s husband, or Şirin was Sinan’s wife.”

“We like to feel proud of being 68’ers, but some of our boasts are empty, such as the one that we recognised women’s freedoms. Only very few women were able to take part in the movement, and Şirin was one of them. She was an independent woman. Her life was proof of the possibility of a revolution. Of course her death does not mean that this possibility has died; young people on the same path lessen our sadness.”

Letter to Rakel Dink

At the end of the ceremony, a letter by Şirin Cemgil to Rakel Dink, widow of murdered Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, was read out:

“Very well do I know the hands that shot down my beloved in the Nurhak mountains and the hands that shot down your beloved. But I also know the love and brotherhood in this country.”

The crowd then shouted slogans and sang the Nurhak folk song commemorating the death of Sinan Cemgil and others.

Biography

 Şirin Yazıcıoğlu (Cemgil) was born on 11 May 1945. After graduating from the law faculty of Ankara University she briefly worked as a lawyer, defending progressive democrats put on trial for political crimes. She was a member of the Çankaya branch of the Turkey Workers’ Party (TİP) and a founder of the Confederation of Thought Clubs (FKF). She took an active role in the 1968 student movement. She married movement leader Sinan Cemgil when they were students. Following the 12 March military coup in 1971, she went to prison.

After her release, she took part in the communist movement. Following the 12 September 1980 coup, she was again arrested. After her release, she left Turkey for Germany in 1982. After her death there last week, she was brought back to Turkey and buried next ot Sinan Cemgil. (EÜ/AG)